Human Rights

Israel’s decades-long policy of detaining Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza in prisons inside Israel and depriving them of regular family visits is not only cruel but also a blatant violation of international law, said Amnesty International, ahead of a mass prisoner’s hunger strike beginning next week to mark Palestinian Prisoner’s Day on 17 April.

This marks the third consecutive year that Adalah has initiated efforts to overturn the ban on bringing bread products in hospitals during Passover but Israeli officials have failed to provide a substantive response. Adalah intends to file a legal appeal against the ban.

U.S. Policy

Acting Spokesman Mark Toner: “I’m aware the timing was linked or was close to [escalating tensions], but this was, as my understanding of it, just a periodic update, and that the information concerning Gaza was similar to language from our previous travel warnings.”

Palestinian Politics

The Palestinian Authority Education Ministry called the possible revisions to the curriculum an “affront to the Palestinian people, its history and struggles,” and said the suspension would continue until the UN agency’s “positions are corrected.”

On Sunday, an unusual statement issued by a media outlet identified with Hezbollah – on behalf of a joint command center including Russian and Iranian forces as well as the militias that support the regime in Syria – condemned America’s retaliatory attack on April 7 and declared that the alliance that supports Assad will respond strongly to any new assault against the regime….If the declaration is indeed credible, does it also apply to Israel?

Yisrael Katz, a leading member of the ruling Likud party who wants to be the next prime minister, is among many right-wing politicians who have argued it is high time for Israel to look past the two-state solution toward other possible futures. But he has distinguished himself with a detailed vision of what could be on the other side – illustrated by maps, graphs and PowerPoint presentations.